Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich has challenged Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille to a public debate in an escalating war of words over how the city is run. De Lille told the Cape Town Press Club on Monday that Ehrenreich and the African National Congress (ANC) had failed as an opposition party in the city."We treat rich and poor people the same… to single out Cape Town as the most unequal and segregated city is a lie‚" she said in response to criticism from the ANC and Cosatu about the Democratic Alliance (DA) advancing the interests of the rich at the expense of the poor.Ehrenreich said in a statement that he was “surprised” to have been singled out.“Given that the mayor has such a desire to denigrate me in public‚ I would like to give her a real chance to do so‚” he said.“I am inviting the mayor to a public debate on the City of Cape Town at the Cape Town Press Club. This would give us an opportunity to ask the mayor why she panders to rich developers over lunch in Camps Bay‚ but wears gas masks when she goes to visit the people on the Cape Flats‚ and why her five years in office has seen a deepening of racial divides and deepening of inequalities in CT.Business Day reported that De Lille told the Press Club that other cities were‚ in fact‚ more segregated than Cape Town.“Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth‚ for example‚ are more segregated… We are growing in a nonracial way‚ (but) you cannot deal with apartheid spatial planning overnight‚" she said.“I am asking the voters to judge me on my record‚ and assess that record in the light of my detailed policy platform… My vision is to unlock the incredible power of this city - the power of the millions of people who live here now and who will live here in the future to have a better life.”..